ABSTRACT
Over the decades, the places of work of physicians have been largely influenced by the changing patterns of migration and population densities of prospective patients in the locality where the physician considered establishing a practice. The sources and opportunities for medical education, workforce participation, and ethnic diversity of patients of black physicians suggest that desegregation and affirmative action programs have achieved some successes toward forging a more open society. It is true that contemporary black physicians, in the aggregate, tend to have ethnically diverse patient populations. One of the most important questions about the contemporary status of black physicians is the extent to which they have been integrated into professional organizations of physicians and health care delivery organizations since desegregation. There is a recognition expressed by recent presidents of the National Medical Association (NMA) of the need for increased political participation of black physicians aimed at influencing legislative decisions pertinent to the future of national health care policy.
